Isaiah l



(No Model.)

I.- L.ROBERT S.

SECONDARY BATTERY. No. 396,369. Patented Jan. 15, 1889..

illllH WITNESSES? IIVVENTOR,

' QQQm) W W WW4 A ATTORNEY,

Nita STATES ISAIAH L. ROBERTS, OE BROOKLYN, ASSIGNOR TO THE ROBERTS-BREVOORT ELECTRIC COMPANY, (LIMITED,) OF NEV YORK, N. Y.

S ECO N DARY BATTERY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 396,369, dated January 15, 1889.

Application filed October 11, 1888. Serial No. 287,875. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may conccrlt; All of the foregoing may be changed or al- Be it known that I, ISAIAH L. ROBERTS, a tered either in form or location without deresident of the city of Brooklyn, county of parting from the essence of my invention.

Kings, and State of New York, and a citizen of In the practice of my invention 1 proceed 5 the United States, have made a new and useas follows: I take, for example, sheets of copful invention in Electric Batteries, of which per, and I take ordinary blue-stone, (sulphate the following is a specification. of copper,) and I preferably powder or com- My invention relates to an electric battery minute the same and form it into a paste,

which is adapted for use as a primary batpreferably using for this purpose a little to tery capable of being stored after discharge starch and water, or flour and water, though by a current of electricity taken either from any vegetable glutinous or animal gelatinous a dynamo or another battery. substance will do. It is not necessary to I have discox'ered, primarily, that much powder the crystals, as they can be used; but better batteries, particularly for storage purby finely comminuting the salt superior re- 15 poses, can-be made by the use of the salts of sults are obtained. I make this paste stiff various metals, as distinguished from oxides enough to enable the copper salt to be spread now commonly used. Such batteries have upon the conductor of copper as butter is never been manufactured, owing to the manispread upon bread. \Vhen the paste is propfest difficulty of holding the crystals or powerly formed, I spread the same upon the con- 20 dered crystals in contact with the carbon or ductor, preferably a copper plate, and prefermetal plates or conducting-supports. This ably on each side, to the extent of about onedifficultyI have overcome, and my invention quarter of an inch in thickness, more or less. therefore relates both to the manufacture of I insert this covered plate in a cell, and I pour batteries using the salts of a metal, and also around it preferably a paste made of starch 2 5 to means for securing the material in contact or flour, or any paste derived from animal with the plates or conductor against which it gelatinous or vegetable glutinous substances. is necessary to hold the active material. This paste is preferably combined witha mate- My invention is illustrated in the accomrial added to the water with which the paste panying drawings, forming part of this speciis made to make the combined water a better 0 fication, in which the same letters of referconductor, and for this purpose Imay use the ence represent the same parts throughout the salt of any metal which will not act upon the several views. zinc. I prefer, however, the salts of an alkali, Figure-1 shows a perspective view of an such as common table-salt or some salt of electric battery, and Fig. 9 a vertical section zinc. The quantity should be suificient to 3 5 Fig. 1. make the water in the paste a good conductor.

A is an outside cell of any suitable mate I then place in the same cell a zinc element rial; B, the contained pasty mass; O O, the likewise surrounded by the paste which is to zinc elements, and D the copper or carbon fill the cell about the elements. It will now elements, whichever is found most desirable be seen that the metallic salt upon the'negato to use, although I prefer to use a copper eletive element is held thereon by the paste 9o ment. which surrounds it. The batteryis now ready E is a bag or containing medium made of to discharge as a primary battery, and after gelatinized fiber. its discharge as such the metallic salt is re- E E is the salt formed into a paste and duced. The battery can then be recharged 5 spread upon the element D. by a current of electricity, when it will again 9 5y F F are the usual connections uniting the bring the reduced metallic salt back to its zinc elements to be used as one of the poles previous condition as a salt of the metal. of the battery, and G the connection with the The action, for example, is simple. As the copper or carbon element forming the other battery is discharged, the copper sulphate is 50 pole of the battery. reduced to metallic copper and the zinc ele- 10o ment is transformed (partly) into sulphate of zinc. After the discharge, and while the battery is being stored, the current so used brings the sulphate of zinc back to the metallic condition, and the sulphuric-aeid radical is driven back to the copper, which becomes sulphate of copper again. The battery can be formed with any metallic salt-such. as the sulphates, nitrates, or chloride of any .metal which will unite with zinc or other positive element used. The conductor or support upon which the salt is placed is preferably the metal the salt of which is used, though carbon or platinum can be used with any of the salts as a conductor upon which the salts are spread. Thus carbon serves as an efficient conductor for salts of mercury.

\V hen copper salts are used, or any salt which will produce trees when reduced to the metallic state, I proceed as follows: Before inserting my conductor covered with the metallic salt in the glutinous or gelatinous paste 1 envelop the same in a bag,preferablyformed of what is known to electricians as gelatinized fiber. This material does not seem to oppose any deleterious resistance, while it prevents or retards metallic trees, whiclrare the product of the reduction of the salt, from projecting themselves out into the gelatinous mass, thus preventing the danger of shortcircuiting. It will be seen that the gelatinous and glutinous paste holds the metallic salt upon the conductor upon which it is spread, preventing its falling away from the plate and preventing its diffusion throughout the battery, and serving to localize the metallic salt during its reduction to a metal, and when it is being brought back from a metal to the state of a metallic salt.

Thus my invention broadly consists of two features, one relating to the use of metallic salts spread upon a suitable conductor in. a crystallized and preferably powdered state, and the other feature relates to the holding of such salts in position upon the conductor by the use of the gelatinous or glutinous material.

In an application filed by me May 1, 1888, Serial No. 272,519, I have described the use of the gelatinous or glutinous paste as applied to storage-batteries in which the oxides of metals are used.

In making the paste which is to surround the element I may make it as follows: I take, preferably, ordinary starch and heat it, say, to 212 liahrenheit, when mixed with water, about two ounces of starch to a quart of water, and thus form the paste. If acids are to be used, they must be added when. the paste is cold and must be worked into it. If chloride of sodium, caustic soda, and the like are used, they may be added to the water before the cooking of the starch. The addition of sulphuric or other acids to the starch must be made when the starch-paste is .cold 5 but other materialsuch as table-salt, caustic soda, and the likecan be added only before the starch is treated with the water to form the paste.

I need not surround the condnoting-support, covered in whole or in partwith the metallic salt, by the paste, for the support may extend across the cell or box and have the salt only 011 one side. Then, of course, the paste would only be used on the side of the plate where the metallic salt was placed.

hat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The process of making an electric battery, which consists in covering a conductingsupport with a metallic salt itself made into a paste, and then holding the same in position upon the support in the completed batter 'by the use of a paste capable of electrolysis, or of permitting chemical action to pass, substantially as described.

2. The process of making an electric battery, which consists in covering a conductingsupport with a metallic salt, enveloping the same in an envelope or bag of suitable material, preferably gelatinized fiber, then surroundin the conducting-support, salt, and bag with a paste capable of electrolysis, or of permitting chemical action to pass, substantially as described.

ISAIAH L. ROBERTS.

\Vitnesses:

JosnPH L. LEVY, HENRY L. BREvooRT. 

